Italy's Donatello Awards follow box office lead

After awarding a slew of prizes last year to sleeper hit Bread And Tulips, Italy's film industry nominations again matched local box office success. Nanni Moretti's La Stanza del Figlio, Marco Tullio Giordana's The Hundred Steps and Gabriele Muccino's The Last Kiss led the nominations for Italy's Oscar equivalents, the David di Donatello awards, each receiving nominations for best film, best director, best script, best actor, best editor, and best producer.

Moretti's film, a harrowing story about a family forced to cope with the death of a child, won a total of 12 nominations including best actress and best supporting actress. The Last Kiss, a bittersweet comedy which has so far made more than $10m at the local box office, and The Hundred Steps, Italy's foreign Oscar candidate and a strong performer on home territory, each received ten nods.

With the leading trio's films all set in contemporary or recent times, period dramas had a rather tougher time. Veteran director Ettore Scola's Unfair Competition and Giuseppe Tornatore's Malena, both World War II stories, failed to win nods in any of the main categories. Both films won nominations for best photography, music and set design.

Other nominations went to Margherita Buy, who will compete in the best actress category for Ferzan Ozpetek's Berlin competition title Ignorant Fairies, and Roberto Ando, Alex Infascelli and Rolando Stefanelli who are all nominated as best emerging director.

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